bend a linear light?

[Joebob]

Hi. I'm fairly new to Lightwave. I was wondering how I could bend a linear light into a donut shape. I want to create some of those circular flourescent lights around a rod. Any suggestions?

[Mylenium]

Nope, not with lights. You would need to model your tubes, assign them a luminous surface and use Radiosity to make them really emit light. Another way would be to simply use arrays of point lights.

Mylenium

[wacom]

This isn't always the best solution...but it can help you "fake" the results you want when combined with other methods. It can be really good for "neon" signs too. First go to flay.com and download the "guid tool" plugin.

http://www.flay.com/getnewsdetail.cfm?ID=628

This plugin lets you take a spline (like a circle) and turn it into two point polygons (thes will show up in Layout). Make your light shape out of a single spine, highlight the spline and then use the plugin. Set the total segments section high enough to give you a smooth shape for your scene. Send this new "shape" over to layout. Up the luminosity on it's surface to something like 90 %. Give it the color you want (you can use some gradients on this too). Set the object to "glow" with the setting around 100% in the surfaces Advanced tab. Enable Glow for the scene in Scene->Processing(^F5) by checking enable glow with an intensity of 73% or more. Next select your light shape and hit "p" to bring up the properties window. Under the Edges tab Set your Particale/line thinkness to something like 50 pixels. Hit f9 and tweak the settings 'till you get what you want.

This version doesn't let you use radiosity though...it is just a way to "fake" things. Still if it is used in conjuntion with a simple ring of 4 point polygons you can get it to "emit" a ring of light and not get the render hit of using a luminos "tube" with many more polygons.

Just my take on things...

[wacom]

Here is also my "hide the lumi Poly" way of doing things with radiosity. I use the same method as above, but "hide" a low poly count object with a higher luminosity setting in the "glow and line thickness" haze. It works well and cuts down on render times.


I'll post my simple test files for you to look at (LW 7.5).

[wacom]

It's nothing "purdy" to look at but I hope it helps...here are the scene and object files...

[Joebob]

thanks. we don't have that plugin at the college (unfortunately), but I will try that in the future when I get my own rig. The results of your demo do look like what I am after.

[UnCommonGrafx]

Ummm,
What plugin????

That's all lw.

Nice one, Wacom. Thanks!

[Joebob]

Originally posted by wacom
First go to flay.com and download the "guid tool" plugin.

http://www.flay.com/getnewsdetail.cfm?ID=628

This plugin lets you take a spline (like a circle) and turn it into two point polygons (thes will show up in Layout).

[UnCommonGrafx]

Thanks for the clarification!
I based it on what was in the scene only.

I was seriously perplexed. That'll teach me to be on the net after beddy-bye time.